3 out of 5

Directed by: Jeff Rowe

This is a good Turtles movie. It’s well cast, it looks great, and it’s modern in that slightly cringe way for us adult viewers that I’m guessing was also true of the 1990 classic for my folks back in the day. Is that a middling response? Should this lifelong Turtles fan have a stronger yea or nay reaction?

Well, look: being able to confidently say “this is a good Turtles movie” is a strong reaction, as we’ve had several years, at this point, of things in the franchise that have rubbed me the wrong way, or that have been imperfect with too many caveats required to fully get behind. So there are things I’ll get into below that I may’ve wished to be different in Mutant Mayhem, but it’s also a movie I was happy with, and happy to have embraced as the tone-setter for this next generation of TMNT.

2023 TMNT starts anew in terms of this being a unique world and iteration of our foursome, but I disagree with the Roger Ebert review suggesting this is another origin story: taking a note from Rise‘s setup, MM mostly skips over detailing the Whats and Hows, at least in the more extended way we’re used to it. We do start with an inciting incident – Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito) doing some mad science, then getting shut down for going mad science rogue by his TCRI bosses, leaks his experimental ooze into the sewers – but that functions mostly as a cold open, and we jump past everything else to introduce the teenage mutated turtles Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), and Raphael (Brady Noon), trained in the art of ninjitsu by their surrogate mutated rat pops Splinter (Jackie Chan), but mostly just using said arts to remain in the shadows while they procure supplies and spy on humanity’s creative output – like movies – from afar. Again following from Rise, we do touch on this ninjitsu ‘training,’ but it’s tossed off like a joke, mentioned because it has to be and not really included as a storypoint otherwise. Like, they’re able to fight, here’s why, and moving on. While this kind of forward momentum logic is a long standing cartoon tradition, the offhand treatment of such things is a more modern invention, and pretty indicative of the trajectory of media shaped by shorter bursts of trends and headlines… and thus indicative of how most of this movie is plotted. Which is where I kind of get bummed out, because this “good” movie could’ve been great with a bit more story focus in general, and some patience with storytelling as opposed to cool moments. It is almost bizarre how the flick sacrifices some big scenes for no tradeoff except to get to the next scene. (Or I’m just old and not getting it anymore. Or both?)

The teen actors’ dynamic is, alongside the unique animation, the movie’s best aspect. I definitely rolled my eyes (and continue to) at how often this figures into the press for the flick – we made them real teenagers! – but I think this is an aspect that’s only become more needed with the aforementioned focus shift in media, as more traditional patter can’t keep up with the more hyperactive style, and when you use polished voice actors to replicate the mile-a-minute lingo of the youth, it can lose something, or – see the Bay movies – feel embarrassingly forced. While I think Mutant Mayhem’s makers struggled with the timing of this dialogue, and finding how to highlight its humor, the very naturalistic interactions were ultimately a plus, helping to smooth over other cracks in the film.

And the look: of course. This is the way this should’ve been handled, giving the film the visual spice that seeing full-size costumes provided in the original movie, but maintaining the kind of scope a modern flick needs… without the excessiveness of the Bay films (which moved quite far away from TMNT or comic book DNA), and, perhaps, with giving it a hook that hand-drawn animation may not’ve provided. The varying frame rate trick of Spider Verse maybe wasn’t as necessary, as it’s not as integral to the shtick, but, sure, zeitgeist and all. That said, there’s going to be some subjective vibes here, which I’m probably only saying to voice my own: that the business of the style could perhaps be balanced a bit, with it mainly being distracting with elements that shouldn’t have the “wiggle” of the CG + made-to-look-hand-drawn style, mainly notable in the lighting effects. When characters are in motion, it makes sense, but when we have comparatively stiller scenes, seeing the animated lighting was distracting.

Back to the story (he says, criticizing the storytelling): on one of their errand outings, the TMNT interact with teen would-be reporter April O’Neil (a perfectly cast Ayo Edebiri), and a bond over all of their desires to fit in is formed, with a teenaged-brain plan to have the turtles ingratiate themselves to the world by stopping the current crime spree du jour, and April ingratiating herself to her schoolmates by reporting on it. But things become more complex when they all discover that said spree’s perpetrator is another ooze mutate: Superfly (Ice Cube), bringing with him a league of kooky animal mutates, and a nifty take-over-the-world plan.

I like this. I like the Shredder avoidance; I like the themes, which are a very smart way to combine the outsider feelings Turtles can tap in to with something age-appropriate, and also some good stakes, and opportunities for the quirkiness of tons of mutants running around without it feeling like an aside to some core story. Again, though, the execution is odd: despite some absolutely thrilling montage filmmaking – this tapping into the mile-a-minute pacing – the movie just can’t slow down to really set those stakes, or establish those themes. It is, truly, like that stuff doesn’t matter to Mutant Mayhem, and perhaps it doesn’t. The reliance on needle drops is another reminder of this, overwhelming a solid score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and doing a Stranger Things-esque revival attempt of 90s hip-hop (and I’m curious as to how the kids are absorbing that) which is by no means a bad thing, but also can’t let a music sting last beyond the temporary “cool” thrill it provides.

As you can see, my main nits seem to be with stuff that could be being fogged by old man brain. Maybe. I liked the last generation of animation that was fueled, in my mind, by Adventure Time, and left its marks on the hyperactive Rise; Rise’s take on that was very uneven, though, and was suggestive of this following generation which seems to combine hyperactivity with… casualness? But the bits and pieces underneath the bubbling (and not boiling) surface of this movie seem to form a much stronger and more substantial foundation than some of the other recent Turtles projects, so while I might think the end result is quite imperfect, I’m still satisfied. I want this version to evolve. It was good.